Extra points: Area teams hit late-season stride

Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 12:09 AM.

Western Alamance carries an 8-2 record into its regular-season finale, yet the Warriors will look like long shots in the game against Northern Guilford.

The Nighthawks are 9-0 and hold the state’s No. 1 ranking in Class 3-A.

“This is a different animal,” said Western Alamance coach Jeff Snuffer, whose team owns a three-game winning streak. “We’ll try to play our best.”

Western Alamance stomped McMichael 66-0 last week in a game reduced in some ways by a second-half running clock.

“Hopefully, we can take a few of these points to next week,” Warriors running back Donovan Apple said.

-- RIGHT ON SCHEDULE: Williams High School coach David Green spoke to the importance of notching consecutive Mid-State 3-A Conference victories with the playoffs approaching.

“We’re getting close to playoff time now, so this is the time of year where you really want to be peaking, really want to be getting better,” he said. “And I think we are, very similar to what we did toward the end of last year.”

Western Alamance carries an 8-2 record into its regular-season finale, yet the Warriors will look like long shots in the game against Northern Guilford.

The Nighthawks are 9-0 and hold the state’s No. 1 ranking in Class 3-A.

“This is a different animal,” said Western Alamance coach Jeff Snuffer, whose team owns a three-game winning streak. “We’ll try to play our best.”

Western Alamance stomped McMichael 66-0 last week in a game reduced in some ways by a second-half running clock.

“Hopefully, we can take a few of these points to next week,” Warriors running back Donovan Apple said.

-- RIGHT ON SCHEDULE: Williams High School coach David Green spoke to the importance of notching consecutive Mid-State 3-A Conference victories with the playoffs approaching.

“We’re getting close to playoff time now, so this is the time of year where you really want to be peaking, really want to be getting better,” he said. “And I think we are, very similar to what we did toward the end of last year.”

The Bulldogs won two games in the Class 3-A state playoffs a year ago despite entering the postseason with the final spot on the bracket.

-- FOR THE TITLE: Eastern Randolph coach Seth Baxter said his team knows the challenge this week against Reidsville.

On the line is the Mid-State 2-A Conference crown.

“It’s an exciting time,” Baxter said. “We divided our season in three sections — non-conference, conference and postseason. We’d love to finish with a conference championship.”

A victory would give the Wildcats a 5-1 conference record and would be the first conference defeat for Reidsville.

That magnified the fact that Eastern Alamance tied a season-low with four penalties, costing it 39 yards. Meanwhile, Rockingham County committed 16 penalties for 129 yards.

“We’ve been on the other end of that,” Eastern Alamance coach John Kirby said. “It’s a hard-fought game and you go after it. We don’t always agree with (the calls), but (Friday night) it went our way.”

-- CUMMINGS LOOKS AT BACKUP: Late in the fourth quarter against Bartlett Yancey, Cummings High School quarterback Keith McAdoo took a hit that knocked him out of game. Coach Steve Johnson said removing McAdoo from the game was more of a “precautionary measure.”

“Tevin Smith is a very adequate quarterback, but with Keith at quarterback, he manages the show very well and allows us to be able to play Tevin all over the place because Tevin plays every position,” Johnson said. “Sometimes, you just can’t find him out there.”

-- PASSING PATRIOTS: In the past two weeks, Southern Alamance has faced multi-touchdown deficits at halftime. Each time, the Patriots have come out throwing in the second half, looking to score quick points.

Two weeks ago against Greensboro Page, Southern Alamance’s aerial attack was limited. But last week against Greensboro Grimsley, the Patriots racked up 262 yards through the air.

“We completed some passes in the second half. We were behind and we needed to open it up a little bit to get back in the game,” said coach Henry Trevathan, whose team lost 38-21. “We hit some deep balls, which helped us get back into the game.”

In two of its last three games, Southern Alamance has had more than 260 passing yards.

-- FINDING HIS WAY: Quarterback Addison Benton, making his fourth start of the season for Eastern Guilford, finished 12 of 22 for 208 yards with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Jacob Finerty and two interceptions. Benton also ran eight times for 43 yards and a touchdown.

“Addison’s come a long way,” Eastern Guilford coach David Hines said. “He got into the flow of the game and was able to lead his group like he has been taught to in practice. We’ve just got to keep that going and keep building his confidence.”

The Wildcats weren’t able to score until junior running back Devonte Williams’ 16-yard touchdown run with 23 seconds left in the third quarter, a frame in which Eastern Guilford was able to get some consistency on offense. Benton had 176 of his passing yards in the second half.

“It looked like (the offense) finally clicked,” Hines said. “We’ve been waiting on that to happen pretty much all season. We were able to put up 21 points. We had some breaks go our way. We’ve just got to continue building on what happened in the middle third and fourth quarter (Friday night).”

The Wildcats were without starting junior quarterback Heith Justice and were also missing sophomore playmaker Jarius Morehead, who was injured earlier in the week.

For Eastern Guilford, a year marked by injuries comes to a close this week. But Hines saw some good things from his team that gave him confidence moving forward. He also mentioned the health of his quarterback, who was hobbled after the game with an ankle problem.

“I think we’ve got to build on our offense and defensive performance in the middle third and fourth quarter,” he said. “Fix a few things here and there. If we can just continue to get better, that’s our key right now, to just continue the progress on the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side of the ball and special teams, get (Benton) healthy and just get going.”

-- EIGHT IS ENOUGH: Williams High School took advantage of a few mishandled balls by the Eastern Guilford special teams unit in the third quarter. The Bulldogs offense had control of the ball for eight straight minutes and scored a touchdown on all three drives in that span.

“You score, you kick-off, you get it back,” Green said. “One of the them was kind of unfortunate. We missed the kick and it didn’t go very far and we ended up getting that one. It wasn’t something that we were trying to do, it’s just one of those things that happens sometimes. Other than that, I was pleased. Our kids were getting down the field, hitting people and being aggressive.”

Yet, the defense was considered sluggish by Green and linebacker Jaylin Jeffries, even though the unit didn’t allow a touchdown until late in the third quarter.

“The defense started a little slow, but as the game progressed, we got a little better,” Green said. “We got a little more aggressive, we didn’t have any turnovers on our side, we had a bunch of takeaways on our side. So that’s always a good thing.”

Jeffries said: “We need to turn it up on defense in the beginning. We’re really playing below our potential.”

-- MORE HITTING: At the end of the Williams / Eastern Guilford game, players from both teams were involved in a scuffle that was quickly broken up with no ill effects on either side. “We got everybody separated and that’s all I know,” Hines said. “Nothing major happened and that’s the good thing. Two fired-up teams at the end of the ball game. I don’t really know a whole lot else.”